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Lausanne commune (Vaud canton, Switzerland)

Lausanne
"Free City" of Ouchy
École polytechnique fédérale de Lausanne
- Sailing Team EPFL

See also:

Lausanne

by António Martins

Gules, chief argent
António Martins, 11 January 1998

"Free City" of Ouchy

image located by ND, 4 October 2005

Source: www.planete-drapeaux.net (no longer available)

The coat of arms of "Commune Libre d'Ouchy" (free city of Ouchy). The flag is the same pattern.

Ouchy is a part of Lausanne at the edge of Lake of Geneva. This "free city" is not officially recognized and has a symbolic value. Ouchy was during the Middle Ages for the secondary residence of the Bishop of Lausanne. The inhabitants immortalize the tradition and their specificities since these times.
ND, 4 October 2005

When I was in Lausanne, I saw these arms in several places, and wondered what the status was, so thanks for informing me. I didn't see the flag flying anywhere - do you know of any examples of its use?
Jonathan Dixon, 5 October 2005

The status of the coat of arms of Ouchy is purely informal. There is no official status and it is used by the "Pirates d'Ouchy". This corporation works like an brotherhood. They want an independent city of Ouchy. Of course, this is not a serious request. This is only for the fun and everybody, Lausanne-People and Ouchy-People, finish to drink too lot of white wine.

More seriously, the inhabitants of Lausanne has a lot of difficulties to recognize their own flag because it is not flying often. We might believe that the authorities don't like their flag or are not proud of it! If the Lausanne-People are not able to recognise their own flag, you can imagine they are not likely to know much about the flag of "Ville Libre d'Ouchy".
ND, 5 October 2005

École polytechnique fédérale de Lausanne

École polytechnique fédérale de Lausanne (EPFL) was founded in 1853 as "École Spéciale de Lausanne", a private institute modelled on the "École Centrale de Paris". With classes in chemistry, physics, mathematics, drawing, architecture and engineering, the institute mostly aimed at training civil engineers. In 1869, the institute became the "Faculté technique" of the Lausanne Academy. The Academy was transformed in 1890 in the Lausanne University, the faculty being renamed "École d'Ingénieurs"; the same year, classes in electrical engineering were inaugurated. In 1903, fifty years after its foundation, the institute had 24 professors and 132 students. In 1946, the institute was renamed "École polytechnique de l'Université de Lausanne" (EPUL). In 1953, celebrating its centenary, the institute had 45 professors and some 500 students. Following the adoption on 9 October 1968 by the Federal Council of the Law on the Federal Polytechnical Schools, the institute took its present name, "École polytechnique fédérale de Lausanne" (EPFL). The new campus of Écublens-Dorigny was inaugurated in 1978, the transfer of the whole institute to the site being completed in 2001. EPFL was restructured the next year, the Departments being replaced by Faculties and Colleges. In 2010, 7,762 students were registered at EPFL, including 25% of Ph.D students and 3 % of post-doc students. The proportions of women among the students increased from 12 % in 1982 to 27 % in 2010. EPFL employs 263 professors and 1337 administrative and technical staff members. The proportion of women among professors increased from 1.3% in 1994 to 10.7% in 2010.
http://information.epfl.ch - EPFL website

Sailing Team EPFL

image by Ivan Sache, 29 April 2012

image by Ivan Sache, 29 April 2012

"Sailing Team EPFL", the students' sailing team, uses a white flag charged with the logo of EPFL. The flag appears to be used in two versions:
- a square flag, matching the proportions of the Swiss national flag http://sailingteam.epfl.ch/images/TIP2010/TIP04.JPG, photo
- a rectangular (~3:4), "stand alone" flag http://sailingteam.epfl.ch/images/2012TIP/6.jpg, photo

http://sailingteam.epfl.ch/images/2012TIP/index.html - Photo gallery, Sailing Team EPFL website, showing the two flags
Ivan Sache, 29 April 2012